Month: March 2009
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Virtually Speaking
The word virtually is overused. In many cases using the word virtually simply means not. For example: I have finished virtually all of my homework. This new surgical procedure is virtually pain-free. In Modern American Usage, Bryan A. Garner counts virtually as a weasel-word. Weasel-words are so named because of the habit of weasels to…
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Hello EclipseCon 2009
No, I am not attending EclipseCon — but my smiling face apparently was on Tuesday. StackOverflow founder and CodingHorror blogger Jeff Atwood emailed me to let me know he displayed my StackOverflow user profile page during his keynote at EclipseCon. I don’t know what the context was in which he showed my profile. Maybe he…
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Parrot Web Framework?
Wondering if the following idea could be feasible: Architect a web framework that emphasizes Inversion of Control. Implement core web framework in Parrot (now that this dynamic language platform has released its 1.0). Voila! A web framework that supports any language implemented for Parrot platform. Developers write plugins in any language: Python, Ruby, PHP, Perl6,…
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How do the Proxy, Decorator, Adaptor, and Bridge Patterns differ?
A user recently asked: I was looking at the Proxy Pattern, and to me it seems an awful lot like the Decorator, Adaptor, and Bridge Patterns. Am I misunderstanding something? What’s the difference? Why would I use the proxy pattern veses the others? How have you used them in the past in real world projects?…
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Can I Use Example Code from Internet Q&A Sites?
A user recently asked: Scenario: A developer is working on a project and encounters a problem. They ask a question on the internet somewhere (ie stackoverflow.com) Someone answers their question and provides a nice code snippet that just about does what they want. Where does one legally stand if the developer includes the code verbatim…
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Quantity Over Quality
Alex Netkachov recently reported a list of micro-optimizations for PHP. Several other bloggers (Sebastian, Maggie, Pádraic) responded with appropriate messages, reminding people that proper application design usually counts more than micro-optimizations. They are all correct. When I was an intern, I emailed a C compiler developer, to ask a question that had occurred to me…
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Accepting a job that failed The Joel Test
A user recently asked: I’m about to accept a job offer for a company that has failed The Joel Test with flying colors. Now, my question is how do I improve the conditions there. I am positive that within a few months I will be able to make a difference. But where do I start?…